K. This is only my fourth or fifth time raising chicks. I usually raise quail and ducks, so I'm kinda a newb with the chicken thing. All my previous batches of chickens, except one, were hatched & raised right here, and I always had more-or-less half-and-half hens and roosters. This time, I bought chicks and they were supposedly mostly sexed hens (with some unsexed barred rocks).
But here's the thing. They are all play-fighting the way only the roosters in my previous batches did--as though they are ALL roosters.
Do hens ever play-fight, you know, the head-raised, face-off that roosters do as juveniles? Or do I have a bum batch? Argh. I'm going to be SO ticked off. I asked him if he sexes chickens before sale--I was perfectly willing to purchase straight run but I did NOT want to purchase out of a bin where all the hens had been cherry picked. He said of those he could sex, all he had were hens. The others were straight run. What are the odds SIX chickens under these circumstances are roosters? Was I lied to?
Or is it just that hens will play-fight too? Am I jumping the gun in assuming they're all roosters?
By the way, they range in age... from I guess six weeks or so down to four weeks... or so. I don't really know. The youngest was ten days when I got them, the oldest was probably three weeks... I've had them about three weeks... There is a RIR, a buff orp, two barred rocks, and two easter eggers. Supposedly all but the rocks were sexed.
Thoughts? Thanks!
But here's the thing. They are all play-fighting the way only the roosters in my previous batches did--as though they are ALL roosters.
Do hens ever play-fight, you know, the head-raised, face-off that roosters do as juveniles? Or do I have a bum batch? Argh. I'm going to be SO ticked off. I asked him if he sexes chickens before sale--I was perfectly willing to purchase straight run but I did NOT want to purchase out of a bin where all the hens had been cherry picked. He said of those he could sex, all he had were hens. The others were straight run. What are the odds SIX chickens under these circumstances are roosters? Was I lied to?
Or is it just that hens will play-fight too? Am I jumping the gun in assuming they're all roosters?
By the way, they range in age... from I guess six weeks or so down to four weeks... or so. I don't really know. The youngest was ten days when I got them, the oldest was probably three weeks... I've had them about three weeks... There is a RIR, a buff orp, two barred rocks, and two easter eggers. Supposedly all but the rocks were sexed.
Thoughts? Thanks!
